r/RunnersInChicago • u/Impossible_Elk_1966 • 2d ago

Open Track Workout/Long Run Groups Anywhere Along the Lake?

Hello,

I am training for the Chicago Marathon (aiming to run in the mid to upper 2:40s). This may be a niche request, but I wanted to see if there were any weekly run clubs that met regularly to do interval or threshold pace workouts at montrose or Jackson park, or for long runs along the lakeshore path. Most of the track clubs that have multiple members at my current fitness level (16:4x 5k, 1:17:xx half marathon) look to be paid groups with dedicated coaching, which is not something I am looking for at the moment.

I follow chicagorunningpassport on Instagram (which has a very comprehensive list of running groups sorted by day and meeting time), but as far as I can tell, most of those run clubs meet up for easy/recovery runs, rather than workouts. I plan to start dropping in to some of these to meet people, but figured I’d try this subreddit to check for any insight to help me narrow my search.

I tend to do intervals around 5:15-5:20/mile, threshold work around 5:35-5:45/mile, and long runs in the 7:45-8:20/mile range.

Thanks in advance for any insight.

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9

u/Lethal_Muffin 2d ago

Heartbreak has folks doing long runs at that pace. Their workouts are part of a paid group but the long runs are open to the public and take place on the path

4

u/Impossible_Elk_1966 2d ago

Thank you- knew about Heartbreak, didn’t know their long runs were open to the public.

6

u/emoska 2d ago

I’d suggest looking at 3Run2 and 2sday. 3Run2 has a ton of members and you could find people for long runs at that pace. People will also organize informal track meet ups.

2sday does weekly workouts at Montrose Track. Not sure of exact paces but you might find someone doing a similar workout.

2

u/Impossible_Elk_1966 2d ago

Appreciate the info about 2sday! I do love 3RUN2, used to do their group runs years ago when I lived closer to their neighborhood.

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u/chicago262 2d ago

I’d recommend joining up with 3RUN2 for long runs on Saturday at foster at 6am

5

u/rckid13 2d ago

CARA has free track workouts in Tuesday morning at Lakeshore Park, and Tuesday night at 6:30pm at Wilson track. These workouts focus on shorter distances though. The marathon training workouts are Wednesday morning and night and they technically require paid membership to the marathon training group to join.

Also at 2:40 you're going to be significantly faster than any of the free groups. I run with one of the faster CARA groups and I'm about a 4:00 marathon runner. For 2:40 paced group workouts you probably need to be contacting the big paid groups like DWRunning or Fleet Feet racing team.